Hello everyone and welcome to this week's blog post. For the last several months, I have been researching restorative stroke treatments. This resulting in me writing a 4000-word research review on the topic, which has been published in the Young Scientist Journal. In this blog post, I will be reflecting on the research process and summarising my key findings.
I decided to conduct this research for two main reasons. The first was that my grandfather suffered from a stroke a few years ago. Unfortunately, he was not able to recover significantly from the injury and thus had severely impaired function for many years afterwards. I also shadowed a doctor on a neurological ward as part of my work experience, where I saw how cutting-edge treatments were used to manage stroke damage. These experiences prompted me to research the latest treatments for ischaemic stroke, especially those which had a chance of restoring function.
Currently, stroke treatment options are limited, as the lost brain tissue can't be regenerated. Instead, current treatment attempts to reduce the damage caused by the stroke and help the patient regain some brain function.
In my paper, I looked at some of the stroke treatments that are currently being trialled, including small molecule drugs, monoclonal antibodies, growth factors and stem cell therapy. These treatments work by promoting the growth of new brain cells in the damaged areas. I also looked at how bioscaffolds can be used to improve the effectiveness of these treatments.
After analysing these treatments, I concluded that monoclonal antibodies, growth factors and small molecule drugs all seemed effective treatment techniques and thus should receive funding for research. In addition, the evidence also suggests them stem cell therapy could be used in the treatment of strokes. Out of the four types of stem cell therapy I examined in my paper, using mesenchymal stem cells and using pluripotent stem cells seemed the most promising. I also concluded that the funds should be used to determine the correct dosage and time-window for treatment, as well as to test their safety.
As part of my research, I read many journal articles to collate the information required. I found it incredibly interesting how quickly medical knowledge advanced and how improvements are constantly being made to medical treatments.
I would like to thank the 2 experts I contacted during my research (Dr Khalil Rawji and Professor David Menon). Their answers to my questions were very informative and allowed me to advance my research and produce the final review article.
For an explanation of how these treatments work and the reasoning behind their effectiveness, I'd encourage you to read my paper. You can find my paper by clicking here.
Sources:
Please see the published paper for sources.
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